


Girl Meets Girl

by aikou



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gals Being Pals (and falling in love), Gender Dysphoria, Gender Issues, Humor, Lesbians, M/M, Nonbinary Ned Leeds, Nonbinary Shuri, Trans Characters, Trans Female Character, Trans MJ, Trans Male Character, Trans Peter Parker, no homophobia/lesbophobia, transphobia mentioned but no transphobia actually happens!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 08:01:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16133054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aikou/pseuds/aikou
Summary: “She's really cool, MJ, you'll love her,” Peter rambled over the phone. “I'm serious. She's - she's a total genius, like leagues smarter than me -”“I don't really think it takes any genius to be smarter than you, Pete.” Michelle interrupted Peter's sentence over the phone, absentmindedly watching the busy streets of Queens through her window view from her bedroom outside.“Shut up!” Peter laughed. “Anyways, Shuri is amazing. You two will get along perfectly, I promise. I already told her about you - and I think she'll really like you, too.”-When Peter won't stop talking Michelle's ear off about a supposed mystery girl by the name of Shuri, Michelle has no choice but to finally meet Shuri at one of Queens' notoriously vibrant parks. But what's this?! After finally being able to meet her, Michelle has to confront her own feelings and realize that what she once had thought had been platonic feelings for Shuri may be something far more...With the help of Peter and Ned, Michelle and Shuri face the music and begin to lose their hearts in the sweet fall time of Queens. Like a wise man once said, "I thought you were American!"





	Girl Meets Girl

**Author's Note:**

> hey so! hi im sol (this is a collab account if you cant tell so the first fic on here isnt written by me) 
> 
> this is a cooperative effort between me and my friend! after some fun conversations with my friend michael i was inspired to finally write something for mj/shuri! because mj is an absolute trans lesbian icon & shuris an absolute nonbinary lesbian icon and i love them both a lot!
> 
> i owe a huge thanks to michael for looking over this for me and helping me fix stuff/see what i can change throughout the time ive been writing this! thank you so much michael it means a lot
> 
> as far as warnings go theres some brief mentions of transphobia mj faces in this chapter, but nothing bad actually happens. besides that, i hope you all enjoy it!! i had a lot of fun writing this and ill be sure to continue haha

“She's really cool, MJ, you'll love her,” Peter rambled over the phone. “I'm serious. She's - she's a total genius, like leagues smarter than me -”

“I don't really think it takes any genius to be smarter than you, Pete.” Michelle interrupted Peter's sentence over the phone, absentmindedly watching the busy streets of Queens through her window view from her bedroom outside.

“Shut up!” Peter laughed. “Anyways, Shuri is amazing. You two will get along perfectly, I promise. I already told her about you - and I think she'll really like you, too.”

Michelle paused, sitting on her bed with a curious expression and gripping her phone tightly.

“Wait. You already  _ told  _ her about me?” She asked, a clear indication of wariness in her tone. Behind the line, Peter's voice faltered and fumbled.

“Uh --- I mean, yeah! But it's, it's not like I told her anything you wouldn’t want me to tell her. Just stuff like, um -” Peter said, struggling to find ways to properly word his sentences. He  _ didn't _ say anything bad about Michelle that she wouldn't want Shuri to hear, but it was times like these where he managed to mess up on properly explaining that lead Michelle to grow suspicious of him.

“Peter.” Michelle interrupted once again, the tone of her voice firm and serious.

“I gotta go! Oh god, the line is breaking up again. I think May forgot to pay for our phone services.” Peter exclaimed, then holding his hand over his phone's transmitter to give the impression of his voice coming off as muffled and far away. “KSSSHK….KSSSHK...Can you hear that? MJ--”

“Peter, I know you're lying. Your ‘phone-breaking-up-on-me’ impressions are  _ so  _ obvious and so lame, you've done this like eight times already since I've known you!” Michelle said.

“I think I'm breaking up! Oh noo, oh god…KSSSHK…KSSSSH--” Peter’s voice grew rougher and squeakier for dramatic effect before he promptly hung up.

Michelle sighed, but her anxieties overwhelmed her irritations which kept her from staying mad at Peter for too long.  _ Peter had already told Shuri about her? _

The idea of Peter telling a - from what he had described about Shuri - ridiculously off the charts intelligent girl from a highly technologically advanced country about Michelle was already nerve wracking enough.

But him telling this exact same girl about any embarrassing slip ups she had done over the course of Peter knowing her? Much, much worse. Michelle knew exactly what kind of person Peter was, too.

If he hadn't yet, he would soon and not of his own accord (because as much as Michelle liked to tease him enough to leave Peter running for his money, she knew very well he wouldn't willingly try and let loose dirt off of her) but through the awkwardness of his own character that led Peter to accidently slip up about secrets he meant to keep, well, a secret.

_ Damn,  _ Michelle thought bitterly as her face heat up while she let the worst case possible scenarios run wild through her head.  _ Damnit! _

Resisting the urge to scream into one of her pillows, Michelle instead let out a heavy sigh.  _ Maybe  _ Peter was telling the truth, and he really didn't tell this Shuri girl anything Michelle wouldn't want her to know about her. Or maybe this whole Shuri girl was entirely fake to begin with, and it was some weird inside joke between Peter and Ned.

The concept of her alone seemed far too good to be true, there was no way she couldn't be. Something along the lines of  _ Yeah, let's tease poor MJ about some pretty smart girl from a hugely advanced country and when she starts fantasizing about this girl like a total loser we break it to her that she was never even real to even begin with! _

Michelle blinked slowly, shaking her head. No way. Even if Peter and Ned pulled their little pranks and had their inside jokes too, there was no way they were that cruel. It just seemed too out of character, and “Shuri” seemed far too elaborate for Peter to have came up with her on the spot.

Michelle sighed again, hopelessly slumping into her pillows. With thoughts racing through her mind like weirdly named horses being bet on by surreally large amounts of cash during an equestrian Olympic race, Michelle decided the better option for now was just to let it go and wait it out for the next Saturday the week after when she finally got to meet her.

“Maybe she'll be cute,” Michelle thought out loud.

_ Ugh. Ughhhh.  _ Michelle shut her eyes and breathed through her nose. Finally, she made up her mind and decided it'd be best not to think too hard on it. She had other better things to focus on, after all, like schoolwork and the academic Decathlon.

Yeah, totally. It’d be super lame to get so worked up over one girl, and one girl alone. Michelle sat up, straightened her back and got to work.

Almost instantaneously, the alarms on her neighbor's car went off. Michelle yelped, and then whipped her head to look outside. Great.  _ Great!  _ This was just fine, she could  _ totally  _ focus under these circumstances.

Michelle took her index finger and her thumb, pinching her nose and breathing deeply. Gotta love living in a big city like Queens.

* * *

 

The following few weeks shot by with such a smooth and quick run it was almost hard to believe those weeks had even happened to begin with, and before Michelle had realized it she woke up to the sound of her alarm clock and it was already Thursday.

The smell of her - father? Mother's? she could hardly tell the difference between the smell of their food, except where her mom faltered in bacon strips her dad succeeded - cooking filled the air, and it was nearly enough to make Michelle's mouth start watering before she even got out of bed.

She threw her legs off the left side of her bed and got up, quickly dressing herself in undistinguished and baggy clothes with the intention in mind that it would hide her frame and turn her into a shapeless being.

Michelle chuckled to herself, imagining how she'd probably look to others before heading into the kitchen.

“MJ?” Her mother’s voice spoke, and Michelle’s heart instantly sunk in despair.

It wasn’t as if her mother was horrible, but the relationship that Michelle had with her wasn’t  _ great  _ either. She called her MJ just like her dad, cool, and she had long respected Michelle in her identity as a girl - but it never felt quite enough. She would call Michelle ‘MJ’, but never once Michelle. She would refer to Michelle as her  _ daughter  _ and a  _ girl  _ and use  _ she  _ pronouns on her, but she clearly felt awkward doing so. She would try to understand Michelle’s dysphoria when it came to shopping, but in the end it seemed in her mother’s eyes she felt as if Michelle just didn’t like the clothes she got for her, plain and simple.

She would never understand Michelle unlike someone like Peter or Ned who were both trans like her would, and in the end even though Michelle felt that though her mom wasn’t the worst and she was understanding and open-minded like anyone else, she wasn’t the best either.

“Hey, mom.” Michelle spoke, drowsiness clear in her voice after just recently waking up. There was an awkward silence that followed, and her mother made a quick gesture to the food she was making to break the ice.

“Eggs and bacon.” Her mom pointed out. “Just how you like them, and I made sure to do the bacon right this time. Doesn’t smell, huh?”

Michelle nodded, tightening her lips.

“Yeah, uh, so where’s dad?” She asked. Her mother sighed.

“Working, as always. What else would you expect of him?” She spoke while flipping an egg. Her attention appeared to be elsewhere, and Michelle decided to pull out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down while she was still there. “I swear, he can be ridiculous sometimes. But it’s all for us, right? He’s got his heart in the right place, at least.”

“Mmm,” Michelle hummed. Her mom went to retrieve a plate from the cabinet and then slid Michelle’s food onto the plate. Michelle’s eyes glanced over at her mother - a beautiful and mature older woman who she was sure anyone else would be proud having as their mom. But for her, Michelle could only ever feel misplaced and awkward: phasing in and out and never quite being there on both ends of their equally insignificant relationship.

“Here,” She spoke, gentle and strangely quiet. Michelle looked up while her mother sat her plate on the table, placing a fork and spoon beside the plate as well. “I’m sorry your father and I haven’t been able to come home as often as we used to, you know we try but the workdays have grown especially tough lately.”

Michelle fidgeted with her fingers before using her fork and deciding to take a bite out of her bacon strips. For once, it didn’t actually smell that bad like her mom had mentioned, weirdly enough.

“I hope you can understand, MJ.” Her mother continued. There was a slight tinge of guilt in Michelle’s head, wishing for the conversation to end soon as soon as possible while she continued to eat her breakfast.

“Yeah, yeah.” Michelle mumbled in between her bites of food. “It’s okay mom, I get you. I mean - we all have our days.”

There was a gentle, tired smile on her face as she looked at Michelle. Something that Michelle hadn’t seen since she was younger than a girl, but not quite a child either. An odd warmness pooled in her belly that she couldn’t exactly put her finger on but didn’t hate.

“Of course.” Her mother sighed. “Either way - eat well, have a good day at school. I have to go and get dressed soon. You know I love you.”

_ I wish I felt like you did,  _ but Michelle kept her lips zipped shut. She nodded, finishing up her meal.

With that, her mother left with another smile and off to her bedroom. Michelle sighed, leaning back in her chair and letting the whole uncanny conversation sink in. Just like every other time she talked to her mother, it felt like she was talking to a complete stranger who was disguising as someone she should’ve known but even that person seemed like a concept that was aloof and foreign to her.

Like first being introduced to math when she was just a kindergartener, but this time she was fifteen-going-on-sixteen and struggling with basic human conversations with her own mother of all people. Great.

Michelle went to clean up her plate, the sound of dishes clinking against each other filling the air. Once she finished she then did everything else she needed to prepare for school and left - ready to take on the day.

The morning during her bus ride was the same as always, the only minor difference being paper airplanes being tossed around the bus by freshmen and a few annoying juniors. Although the bus driver made her complaints loud and clear, it fell on deaf ears and the students still pursued.

“MJ! Hey, MJ!” One boy shouted.

“She’s got her earbuds in - hey, dude, just forget her.” The other sitting next to him replied. Out of the corner of her eye as she made it to her seat, she could spot the first boy’s eye roll.

School buses were annoying, the people on there were annoying - and the only reason Michelle had still rode them was simply because her home was too far away from school to walk and she still hadn’t received her driver’s license yet.

With some people she rode the bus with, it was difficult to tell if they were being nice to her because they were  _ actually  _ being nice, or only being nice to her as a cruel joke and making fun of Michelle behind her back.

It wasn’t unusual treatment, but it was still frustrating. Michelle knew who she was so it was exactly the type of thing she’d expect from ignorant and annoying cis boys. But that didn’t make it any less difficult to deal with on some days more than others.

This was not that day, though, and Michelle carried on unbothered and undeterred. She took her seat up in one of the middle rows and turned the music up on her phone even louder so she was completely unable to hear them.

Her phone lit up as Michelle went to look through her playlists, a message popping up from Peter. Michelle smiled lightly, something to make her morning feel much better even when the world tried to make her feel otherwise.

**Peter**

**[Message Sent at 6:31 AM]**

hey mj!! it’s only one day away until saturday are you excited to finally meet shuri?? haha

**You**

**[Message Sent at 6:31 AM]**

i’m practically shitting my pants in excitement

**Peter**

**[Message Sent at 6:31 AM]**

ok one that’s just gross...two i know you aren’t

why can’t you just say yes like any other normal person -_-

**You**

**[Message Sent at 6:31 AM]**

your responses are really funny, also

how do i even know she’s real?? you haven’t even told me what country she’s from besides vague details

  
**Peter**

**[Message Sent at 6:31 AM]**

because if i told you you wouldn’t believe me

also i’m serious aunt may looks through my messages to make sure i’m not doing anything bad so stop saying that stuff

**You**

**[Message Sent at 6:33 AM]**

she does not

okay well at least send a selfie of her or something?? or at least some other detail besides your vague descriptions!

 

**Peter**

**[Message Sent at 6:33 AM]**

fine she doesn’t i’m just saying it because you’re gross

and no that would ruin the surprise! which is why i’m keeping everything vague in the first place lol

  
  


**You**

**[Message Sent at 6:34 AM]**

okay dork. well is she our age at least?? i’d feel awkward talking to her only to find out she’s like 20 and you met her through your weird ‘internship’ program

 

**Peter**

**[Message Sent at 6:34 AM]**

well obviously

i wouldn’t let you meet her if she wasn’t that’d just be. uhh

uncomfortable on both ends for a better lack of words

:/

**You**

**[Message Sent at 6:34 AM]**

yeah sure

**Peter**

**[Message Sent at 6:34 AM]**

listen mj you’ll do just fine meeting her

girls love sensitive and artistic girls so shuri will love you and you’ll be perfect friends for eachother

also you’re really smart and funny to boot so there’s that to look forward to

  
  
  


**You**

**[Message Sent at 6:34 AM]**

do they really though?

**Peter**

**[Message Sent at 6:34 AM]**

i mean. probably

look you’re the lesbian here so you know way more about girls than i ever will

you’re like, supreme woman lover connoisseur and people love a lady who knows what she’s talking about

aka you

ha!

 

**You**

**[Message Sent at 6:34 AM]**

sure thing, nerd

Michelle leaned back into her bus seat, internally rolling her eyes at her best friend. Right as she turned off her phone and took out her earbuds, the bus halted to a stop and met the front of the school. Kids got out of their seat and began piling out the door, Michelle following suit right after she hid her phone in her pocket.

_ Shuri, huh. _ Besides that absolutely anxiety inducing conversation she had with Peter on Thursday a few weeks ago and every other couple of moments in between the week, Michelle hadn’t actually given that name much thought in awhile.

Sure, she spent time running through different types of situations with this exact  _ Shuri  _ \- falling in lo - becoming friends with her under a warm autumn in Queens and watching birds migrate back home for warmer conditions due to the upcoming winter, drinking hot cocoa together and cuddling up while watching ridiculously-bad-they’re-actually-kind-of-funny genre of movies on Michelle’s living room T.V together.

Or, or, helping each other out with different school assignments and happening to notice (by pure coincidence!) just how bright her eyes twinkles when she became especially focused on her work, or how her tongue sticks out subconsciously when she gets frustrated and began erasing a problem she had wrong.

And then maybe sitting in Michelle’s biology class together and dissecting frogs, going over the different types of anatomy each separate frog had and comparing results - and then accidentally brushing fingers when washing their hands to get rid of the gross frog stains and pulling away, before hesitating and continuing to wash their hands while laughing nervously with both of their cheeks hot with embarrassment.

(The third one was by far the grossest one yet, but Peter had left Michelle with barely even a clue about this girl and Michelle was getting desperate.)

So no, she didn’t give this Shuri girl much thought about her at all.

Michelle stopped dead in her tracks while walking into the open doors of Midtown before the sad realization hit her faster than the speed of light like a raging bullet train. Jesus Christ, she was  _ hopeless -  _ Michelle hadn’t even met this girl yet and she was falling in love with the concept of Shuri and not even the actual person, no less!

She couldn’t believe this. If she told Peter and Ned, they’d just laugh right in her face. No, she wasn’t falling in love with the actual Shuri. Just the concept of her, and Michelle would probably be greatly disappointed when she met the real girl. She’d be friends, that’d be the end of their story, and then Michelle would move on to find better, brighter luminescent and multicolored fish in the polluted sea.

Sighing, Michelle made her way into the school and located her locker. Right as she grabbed her materials she needed from her locker and unzipped her backpack to place them inside, she could hear the voices of both Peter and Ned gradually growing closer.

“MJ! HEY!” Ned yelled.

“Ned, pipe down! You’re going to attract attention.” Peter added on. “HEY! MJ! WHAT’S UP!”

Michelle looked behind herself to notice Ned shooting Peter a look, and Peter giving him a smug smile in response. The  _ I just yelled even though I told you not to yell, but you can’t do anything because I’m your totally cute boyfriend and we’re in public right now so you’ll draw attention if you get mad at me  _ type of grin.

Regardless, Ned settled on a playful punch to Peter’s shoulder.

“Ouch!” Peter whined, feigning hurt.

“That did  _ not  _ hurt.” Ned laughed. Peter faked another sad expression that made him look like a kicked puppy before he spoke up again.

“Those sort of things can hurt a man  _ emotionally.”  _ Peter said. “And I’m a man with abs of rock steel, but a sensitive heart of gold.”

“Have you dorks had enough of your fun already?” Michelle interrupted before they could continue. Peter snorted, and Ned gave another light hearted laugh.

“Yeah, you could call it that.” Ned responded. “How was the ride to school?”

“Horrible, as always. But better than usual. What do you expect?” Michelle answered.

“Hey, better than usual! That’s an improvement.” Peter pointed out.

Michelle shrugged, about to continue talking until Ned pointed out the mug she had in her backpack.

“Wait. You brought a _mug_ to school?” Ned asked, completely perplexed. Michelle looked at him just as equally puzzled as if the reason behind it was obvious as day.

“Uhm. Yes?” She responded. “I always bring this mug to school? To lunch? Have you just noticed it now? Ned? You doing okay?”

“No! I mean, yes. I just never really noticed it until now?” Ned spoke. “I mean, I knew you bring a mug to lunch sometimes. But I was under the impression you didn’t exactly bring it with you everywhere you go!”

Peter snorted, drawing attention from both Ned and Michelle. Michelle rose an eyebrow at him and he shook his head.

“It’s nothing, sorry. I was just thinking to myself.” Peter clarified. “Like, MJ going around in public and someone being in grave danger - and then she goes ‘don’t worry, I’ll save you!’ and brings out her emergency mug from her backpack and tosses it at the offender.”

Michelle fake gasped, raising her hand up to her mouth.

“I would never! This mug is far, far too valuable. It has way too much sentimental history for me.” She said.

“Yeah, I’m sure it has sentimental history. Like when you were at lunch the other day and called me Porn Boy because of that incident during homecoming week which - by the way - was a  _ way  _ long time ago while sipping coffee from that very mug.” Ned retorted.

“Yeah, exactly!” Michelle exclaimed. “I’m glad  _ somebody  _ here understands.”

Ned rolled his eyes and Peter laughed lightly, the three of them heading to the commons room after Michelle gathered her belongings to spend their time before classes started together.

“By the way, MJ,” Peter mentioned as they all sat down at one of the few open tables in the lunch room together. “Maybe you can bring your sketchpad when we meet up with Shuri on Saturday. I mean, I mentioned you liked to draw a lot so maybe it’d be a good conversation breaker.”

“Don’t you mean icebreaker?” Ned asked, looking over at Peter.

“Look. Icebreaker, conversation starter, same difference! It’s like six in the morning, give me a break.” Peter said.

“Absolutely no way. You know it’s practically our day jobs to bully you.” Said Michelle.

“But it’s six!” Peter groaned. “Six in the morning. At least wait awhile, you two.”

“You think some complication as small as time would stop early achievers from heading to work early?” Ned pointed out.

“I can’t believe this. Betrayed by even my own boyfriend...what kind of cruel world have I been born into?” Peter said, feigning hurt again but failing spectacularly as he ended up laughing when he saw Ned pulling ridiculous faces.

“Hey, stop it! I’m trying to be serious here!” He added on.

“Yeah, well, so am I! Bluhhh!” Ned blew raspberries at him. Michelle breathed through her nose at their antics but was still clearly amused, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“I don’t exactly know if I can bring my sketchpad. I mean, it’s just drawings of people in crisis.” Michelle interrupted Peter and Ned.

“I don’t know, it’d make for a pretty good conversation. Like, why are you even drawing that in the first place? What are the stories behind these people? Until you tell Shuri, who knows!” Ned said, attempting to encourage Michelle.

“Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you guys - I might be a little late at the park when we’re meeting up with Shuri on Saturday. One of my little sisters has a dance recital and we can’t afford to miss it.” Ned added on, slightly fumbling with his words.

“Awww, seriously?” Peter asked.

“Yeah. Valentina, you remember her?” Ned asked. Peter nodded, humming to himself a bit.

“Uhuh, of course I do! Geez, Ned. Even if you got like a dozen siblings and I’ve got the world’s poorest memory you could at least give me a bit of credit here.” Peter responded. Ned laughed lightly, a small  _ sorry  _ coming from him.

“People in crisis,” Michelle thought to herself out loud. “People. In. Crisis.”

Ned and Peter looked over at Michelle, watching her tap her chin with her index finger thoughtfully.

“You should give it at least a bit of thought, MJ. Who knows what’ll happen?” Peter suggested. Michelle shrugged.

“You’re probably not wrong about that.” She said. Peter gave her one of his notoriously lopsided smiles, nodding with enthusiasm at the thought. Ned sighed softly, admiring his boyfriend’s presence.

* * *

The rest of the day had gone about as ordinarily as Michelle would have expected from a Thursday like that one, with more or less around the same routine with the following Friday. Already, it had been Saturday and Michelle’s nerves were shooting out the roof.

She wouldn’t have to see Shuri and Peter until 3:06 PM (and maybe Ned if he managed to arrive on time), but waking up that morning had been a far bigger struggle than Michelle would expect. For one, she had woken up to another dull and soon to be forgotten Saturday with an actual reason to wake up in mind and hope that it wouldn’t be as dull and forgettable as Saturdays always had been for her.

It was a completely foreign concept to Michelle, but not unwelcome. Far, far from unwelcome.

The rest of her time as she waited for afternoon to arrive was spent with Michelle pacing back and forth in her room, preparing herself for the experience and mulling over different scenarios in her head. What kind of person would Shuri be beyond what Peter described her? What would she look like? What’s her favorite color? Would she really like artistic, sensitive girls with snarky personalities like Peter would say in his texts? Does she have any pet cats that she’d bring with her to the park? Michelle really hoped Shuri wouldn’t, she was allergic to cat fur.

Eventually, 3:00 PM rolled around the corner and Michelle decided to get dressed. She opened the doors of her wardrobe and looked through her varying piles of outfits to wear. After a few brief moments of deciding what to wear Michelle settled on a long skirt with floral patterns that she had spent time crafting all by herself, since every other skirt and dress she found in stores only seemed to gave her dysphoria wearing them.

It was far different when she made her own clothing by hand. She knew exactly what she needed and didn’t need, what would give her dysphoria and what wouldn’t, and in the end that skirt became one of her many favorites to wear on different occasions.

Michelle then quickly threw on the rest of her clothing and slung her bag that was filled to the brim with her sketch pads over her shoulder before heading out the door to the park on an early start for the day.

The fall breeze whipped faintly at Michelle while she walked aimlessly outside, turning on her phone to look through the texts Peter sent her with directions of where they’d be that day. She leaned against one of the house fences while reading them, her thumb scrolling through the large blocks of very hastily and notably excitedly written messages from Peter.

After finishing up, Michelle slipped her phone back into her skirt pocket and headed to the park’s location as quickly as she could - refusing to let her anxieties about Shuri to get the better of her. Stepping into the grass which had been recently wet from yesterday’s rain, she could spot Peter’s figure barely even a few moments away.

He had apparently seen her too, as evidenced by when his face lit up and he lifted his hands to cup it around his mouth, beginning to shout her name in hopes to draw Michelle’s attention.

“HEY! MJ!” Peter’s voice rang with great clarity even through the heavy trafficked streets of Queens. “I’M OVER HERE!”

“I KNOW! I CAN SEE YOU.” Michelle shouted back, not even bothering to cup her hands around her mouth like Peter had. He blinked, faltering for only for just a brief second.

“OH! OKAY.” Peter shouted again. “WELL, COME OVER HERE THEN!”

_ That’s exactly what I’m doing,  _ Michelle wanted to scream in frustration but refrained against doing so. Instead, she sighed through her nose and made her way to Peter. Although her bag would occasionally hit her sides in an irritating fashion due to the persistent windiness of the weather, Michelle remained focused and finally met face to face with Peter who then sat on the bench that was standing right beside him.

He eyed Michelle’s bag, taking notice of her sketch pads that peeked curiously out of the bag.

“You brought your sketchbooks!” Peter pointed out. Michelle shrugged.

“I mean, yeah. Hey, when’s Shuri finally showing up?” Michelle asked. Peter shrugged.

“In a few minutes or so. I don’t think she’ll be very long. I mean, I can’t exactly speak for Ned since he’s at Valentina’s dance recital but Shuri told me she had a few things to deal with before she’d arrive.” Peter explained.

Michelle impatiently scraped her shoe against one of the rocks lying down by the bench, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, okay.” Michelle said, thinking out loud. “Is - she’s nice, right?”

“She’s kinda mean to me and her brother, but she’ll definitely be nice with you. I mean, what kind of person just starts insulting a total stranger right off the bat?” Peter answered.

“Yeah, good point.” Michelle said. “Hmmmmmm….”

Right as Peter was about to speak up again to break the uncomfortable silence between him and Michelle, an all too familiar voice reached his ears.

“Hey, Peter!” Shuri greeted him, walking right over to where Michelle and Peter were located.

Michelle turned her head to find Shuri’s presence, and it felt as if the nodes that kept her heat beating properly had fallen apart on her. Almost as if her heart had stopped pumping the instant Shuri came into Michelle’s line of sight.

“Hi, Shuri!” Peter greeted her back. “Shuri - Michelle, Michelle - Shuri.”

Peter’s voice failed to reach Michelle’s ears, and the moment Shuri had met eye contact with Michelle it appeared that it was just the same for her.

There was a feeling in Michelle that she couldn’t quite describe while she observed Shuri’s presence with wide eyes and a slowly heating face. She couldn’t even form her own words properly, emotions and thoughts running rampant throughout her head and heart.

_ What the hell, this girl has got me completely flustered! _

“I-I-I….” Michelle stuttered. Shuri blinked slowly, her mouth partially agape in awe.

“MJ! MJ is just fine. I’m...uh,” Michelle found herself completely at a loss of words. Shuri was far more beautiful than she’d ever expect, and she still had yet to even hold an actual conversation with her to find out if her personality matched her appearance.

_ Knowing everything Peter has said about her, there’s no way she wouldn’t be. _

“You’ve got...a really pretty name.” Shuri blurted awkwardly, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. Peter looked up from his seat on the bench at the both of them, the gears in his head still turning as he tried to figure out just what was going on between the two.

“Yeah! You too. I’ve heard a lot about you, um. Like - how smart you are and talented and cool. And, and I really don’t doubt it, you totally seem like you are.” Michelle stuttered.  _ Damn it, Michelle! You need to think of something to say besides thoughtless stuttering! _

Shuri seemed to blush harder at Michelle’s compliments, the nerves in Michelle’s head clearing up if only just a little bit at that.  _ She likes me,  _ Michelle thought.  _ So far, but she likes me. _

Michelle’s face heated up even more as well.

“MJ likes drawing!” Peter interrupted. “She’s a really talented artist. Hey, MJ, why don’t you show Shuri your stuff?”

Michelle looked hesitant, but Shuri nodded slowly in quiet encouragement. Michelle groped her hands around her bag for a moment, fingers clumsy and shaking nervously but she eventually grabbed hold of one of her more filled out sketch pads from her bag. She walked over to where Peter was and then sat down beside him, Shuri sitting down besides Michelle and following her movements.

Michelle tried her best not to freak out that the fact an  _ extremely and exceedingly pretty and out of the charts intelligent girl was sitting right beside her who just complimented her on Michelle having a really pretty name, a name she picked all by herself and took pride in, was sitting down right beside her  _ and began to flip through her sketch pad.

Eventually, she settled on one of her more filled out pages full of angsting teens from last week’s Monday when she sat in the detention room to sketch out what she had observed while she waited for her mother to come and pick her up from after school activities and events.

“I like to sit down and draw people in crisis.” Michelle explained, the only sentence she didn’t manage to mess up speaking since she had met Shuri only a couple of seconds ago. “It’s pretty funny, you know. My mom, uh, she’s always pretty late picking me up from school so I just sit around in detention rooms drawing people there.”

Shuri looked at her with a gentle expression on her face, an increasing grin as she watched Michelle flip through the pages of her sketchbook.

“W-wait, what am I doing here?! And why so many times--!” Peter asked, a sense of surprise in the tone of his voice.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be so stressed out all the time and I wouldn’t have to.” Michelle stuck her tongue out at him. “I swear, you’re going to get an ulcer before you turn sixteen if you keep it up.”

Peter frowned, but before Michelle could pester him any further Shuri erupted in laughter right beside her. Michelle glanced over at her, her laughter and her voice sounding like music on a harp string. It was heaven to hear coming from Shuri, and it felt even more unbelievable to realize it was Michelle of all people that made her laugh like that without barely even knowing her.

“Oh my god,” Shuri wheezed. “You’re so funny.  _ And  _ cute. Peter was totally right about you.”

Michelle tightened her grip on her sketchbook, a sense of warmness enveloping her. The soft whistle of the wind, sitting right between her best friend and the most prettiest girl she had ever yet to meet, and going over Michelle’s drawings together while they were waiting for Ned to show up -

It was almost as if things couldn’t get any better.

And yet -

“I would think that, maybe you’d probably walk home instead but you just sit there and -” Shuri tried to speak, interrupted by a steadily growing all too enthusiastic Michelle.

“--I live too far away from school, so I don’t really have any choice but to wait until she picks me up.” Michelle said. Shuri blinked twice.

“That’s - that’s so cute. You’re so cute.” Shuri said, her eyes looking down at the ground. Peter watched both Michelle and Shuri converse with each other, struggling to find his place in the conversation and ended up clasping his hands together which just led to him looking like a poorly done mock image of the Do-It-To-’Em Guy while he waited patiently for them to notice his presence again.

“Hey, Peter.” Michelle spoke up. Peter perked his head up, looking over her shoulder. “It’s you!”

Peter looked over at where Michelle pointed her finger on the sketch pad, then scrunching up his nose in distaste.

“You gave me a mustache!” He pointed out.

“Yeah? And what of it?” Shuri asked, giggling lightly.

“Could’ve at least made it curly at the ends.” Peter said. Michelle rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop herself from grinning.

“You’re a really talented artist, MJ.” Shuri complimented her. Michelle couldn’t believe how perfectly her name rolled off of Shuri’s tongue, or that she was even speaking to her in the first place. “Have you ever thought of art college? I mean, you have a lot of potential even if it’s just stuff like this.”

Michelle leaned back into the bench, briefly thinking.

“A couple of times, yeah. But I’m more interested in STEM.” She told Shuri. Shuri grinned.

“You’d be great.” Shuri replied.

Peter’s phone began vibrating in his pocket, making him jump in his seat. Michelle who had been caught off guard but the suddenness of it all quickly looked over at Peter as he grabbed his phone.

“Oh, it’s my aunt. Sorry you guys, I really gotta take this.” Peter said, standing up.

“It’s cool, take your time.” Michelle told him. Peter responded with a thumbs up before promptly walking over to one of the trees, sitting behind them and taking May’s call - leaving both Shuri and Michelle alone together.

“So - what about you?” Michelle asked, swinging her legs back and forth. Shuri looked at Michelle with a curious expression, squinting her eyes just a bit. “I mean - what its like for you? Home, and stuff. And maybe some things you like.”

Shuri leaned back, shrugging. “Weeeelllll….”

“I’m kind of on a….vacation….thing? Not really. But I don’t really live here, I’m staying here for a couple of months because of this business trip my brother has, and he decided to bring me with.” Shuri said. “The flights were  _ so  _ long and it was  _ awful _ . I got sick not once - but three times! All because of being unable to handle frequently changing weather between flights.”

“ _ Are you rich? _ ” Michelle immediately blurted out. Embarrassed, her eyes widened in realization of her bluntness and Michelle then covered her mouth with her hands before dropping them on her lap. “Sorry.”

Shuri looked far from offended, laughing lightly.

“Yeah, super rich. Rich enough to afford a limitless amount of supplies to make my own technology all by myself, at least.” Shuri answered with a silent smugness in her voice. Michelle stared at her, feeling as if her breath had been torn away from her throat. Smart, pretty, nice,  _ and  _ rich. She couldn’t believe it.

“That’s completely crazy. Just -- insane.” Michelle said. Shuri’s face beamed as she smirked at Michelle, her dimples bringing out the color of her eyes. Dimples! Was it even possible for Shuri to get even more cute?

“I’ve got something right here for you to mess around with, if you want.” Shuri suggested. There was a playful glint behind her eyes, but nowhere near being malicious. “Nothing shady, I promise. There’s no way I’d make it past the airport if I did.”

“I mean….I let you see my drawings, so it’s only fair. It’s like equivalent exchange.” Michelle agreed. Shuri looked down at the ground once again, her face still bright as ever.

Shuri then reached into her pockets, grabbing out what looked like a small black bracelet with three tiny buttons on it. She slid it onto her hand, and then messed around with it for a bit until the small buttons lit up in color. Green, yellow, and red, and then a hologram projected off of the bracelet. It looked like the main menu lockscreen off of a phone, but far more minimalistic in design.

“This,” She gestured. “-is my own invention. I made this all by myself without any effort or help needed from others. Cool, right?”

Michelle blinked slowly, attempting to digest what was in front of her. Peter wasn’t kidding about the  _ smart girl from an insanely advanced country  _ part of Shuri’s description.

“Can I….touch it?” Michelle asked, hesitant. Shuri nodded firmly. “And it’s not - it won’t hurt me, right?”

Realizing how ridiculous she sounded, Michelle shoved her face in her hands.

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry. That probably sounded so dumb.” She groaned. Shuri laughed again, but for once with a pretty girl it didn’t feel as if Shuri was laughing at Michelle - but rather beside her. Michelle peeked between her fingers, a blurry view of Shuri’s face still in front of her.

“No, no, it’s okay. I’ve heard much weirder questions about my technology.” Shuri reassured her. Michelle took her face out from her hands and then tucked her hair back behind her ear, a nervous habit of hers that never seemed to die out no matter what.

“I mean - probably. But I still feel kind of dumb, though.” Michelle said. “This, though - this is freakishly cool.” She gestured to Shuri’s bracelet-hologram-phone-thing.

“Thank you.” Shuri replied, a pleasantly satisfied edge to her voice.

Michelle reached her hand out to touch the hologram, hesitating again for a moment before pressing a finger on an empty area of the screen. At that, the device reacted with loading up a bunch of options in the form of miscellaneous images all representing their separately individual tasks.

“Woah.” Michelle breathed.

“Yeah.” Shuri chuckled.

“Hey, guys! Ned’s here!” Peter’s voice called out from behind the trees, drawing Shuri and Michelle’s attention. Evidently enough, Ned was standing right beside Peter who had his phone in his hand, then tucking it away in his pocket.

Shuri quickly turned off her bracelet device, much to Michelle’s disappointment who had been very eager and curious to ask her more about it. She turned around to face the two of them and waved at Ned.

“Hey, you two!” Shuri shouted. Peter quickly ran over with Ned beside him, meeting Shuri and Michelle back at the bench.

“Hey,” Peter spoke again between heavy breaths. “You’re never going to believe what happened. Ned, you gotta -”

“After my little sister’s dance recital, I was eating halo halo at home with my family and then I accidentally snorted melted crunched up ice cubes up my nose. So it was basically just water, but you know, it still had that aftertaste of beans in it - that had to been the most uncomfortable experience, ever. Anyways, I snorted it back out my nose and it ended up one of my older brother’s back and he got really mad so -” Ned rambled.

“Not that one!” Peter exclaimed, trying to hold back laughter but his giggles still bubbling up and escaping his mouth regardless. “The other one! The one where -”

“Oh! Oh, okay! Right. May talked with my parents over the phone and I’m going to have a sleepover over at Peter’s, do you guys wanna come?” Ned asked. “It’s not like you have to stay the whole time or anything. But it’d be cool if you two could at least stop by for a while!”

Michelle scrunched up her nose, mulling it over. Beside her, Shuri rose an eyebrow in curiosity.

“I'll think about it.” Michelle spoke. “I might have stuff to take care of next weekend, but I'm sure I could stop by.”

Shuri's eyes lit up at Michelle, although Shuri still tried her best to hide her excitement at the thought of potentially spending more time with her and cleared her throat.

“I’m free for the weekend!” Shuri added. “I can't stay for long, but I'll be available.”

Michelle glanced at Shuri over her shoulder, her heart fluttering rapidly in her chest at the thought.

“Perfect! Great. It's on Saturday again, Ned's coming over at 3:12 PM but you guys can just arrive whenever you're ready since neither of you are really planning on staying indefinitely.” Peter said.

Michelle cracked her knuckles, imagining the different type of scenarios in her head of what would play out once she arrived at Peter's with Shuri. One, hopefully she wouldn't act like a complete nervous wreck around her again - two, how would Shuri do her hair once she came? Not that it mattered, but Michelle couldn't help but notice how cute and casual she had her hair done today. Three, and last but not least: if Peter had caught on at all to the way Michelle had been so nervously behaving around Shuri, she was completely done for.

“It's real chilly outside, huh?” Ned asked. “I completely forgot to bring my jacket. God, I really should've listened to my mom.”

“Here, you can borrow mine!” Peter said, taking off his coat and handing it to Ned. Ned took Peter's light jacket between his hands and thanked him softly.

“You really didn't need to.” Ned mentioned. Peter shrugged.

“It's okay. You can just return it on Monday.” He said, brushing Ned off. Ned smiled warmly.

Michelle stared at them silently. Yeah, there was no way Peter would be observant enough to realize that about her. He was most likely far too caught up with more important matters to even notice, like Spider-Man duties and Ned.

“Hey, MJ, what's your phone number?” Shuri asked. “If you even have one. It's just, it’d be nice to stay caught up with you. I really enjoy talking to you.”

Trying her best not to blush again, Michelle quickly grabbed her phone out from the pockets of her skirt and began scrolling through her phone until she found her number. Shuri turned on her bracelet again, and patiently waited until Michelle spoke up.

“Here.” Michelle said, about to give Shuri her phone number until Shuri subconsciously leaned on her shoulder to look over at Michelle's phone so she could input Michelle's number into her contacts. Drawn aback by the suddenness of the action, Michelle jumped in her seat but tried not to entirely freak out. “Or - or you could do that.”

Shuri beamed at Michelle before leaning back into the bench and hitting the  _ off  _ button on her bracelet. Michelle tried to avoid Shuri's gaze, her sun-like presence almost overwhelming to be around.

Michelle cleared her throat as if it would make the heat disappear from her face any faster, attempting to smooth out the wrinkles in her skirt and only ending up in her sketch pad falling from her lap.  _ Shit. _

Shuri quickly bent down and grabbed it, holding it out for Michelle.

“Here.” Shuri said. Michelle hesitated before grabbing it from her hands, her fingers brushing against Shuri's.

_ Pull yourself together, Michelle! It's just Shuri. _

“Thanks.” Michelle replied.

The fall breeze began brushing by the legs and tossling the hair of everybody there again. Peter irritability rubbed his shoulders, although tried not to make too much of a scene as he didn't want Ned to feel bad for borrowing his jacket.

“Hey, it's getting pretty late. Maybe we should all head home soon.” Peter pointed out. Shuri quickly shook her head.

“It hasn't been  _ that  _ long. We still have some time to kill.” Shuri protested. Michelle almost wanted to believe it was because Shuri wanted to spend more time around her, but even that seemed like a stretch of fate. The key word was  _ almost. _

Peter squinted his eyes thoughtfully before nodding in agreement.

“Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey, I saw a frog behind the trees when you were talking with MJ. Maybe we can go and catch it if it's still around.” Peter said. Ned perked up his head.

“Wait, seriously? That's  _ so  _ cool!” Ned exclaimed.

“Yeah! It was pretty fat too. Follow me, you guys! It was right around the corner by the bushes and the trees.” Peter responded. He gestured for Ned, Shuri, and Michelle to follow him as he walked to where he suspected that the frog’s new whereabouts had been.

The three did exactly that right after Michelle had put her sketch pad back in her messenger bag. The rest of the afternoon had lead to a wild goose chase of looking for the frog that Peter spotted while he was talking over the phone with May, and eventually they had soon found it.

While Peter and Michelle hid from behind one of the bushes together, Shuri and Ned were paired up with each other and watched from the opposite facing direction of a few distances away from Michelle and Peter.

“There!” Peter shouted. The frog perked its head up, hearing Peter's voice and hopping away. “No! Come back!”

“You're not supposed to yell, idiot. It draws attention since animals have sensitive hearing.” Michelle muttered.

“---Gotcha!” Shuri yelled and appeared out of her hiding with Ned, grasping the fat frog between her hands. It started squirming wildly as Shuri got off from her position on the floor, the frog belching with displeasure. Ned watched with a curious fascination.

“So, so cool! I kind of want to poke it but I don't want it to hop out your hands.” Ned spoke in awe. Peter and Michelle stepped forward, staring at the frog trying to squeeze its way out of Shuri’s firm grasp.

“It’s so…….fat.” Michelle said, blankly.

“Well, yeah. I  _ did _ describe it as being really chubby, you know.” Peter added on. Shuri yelped as the frog nearly wormed its way out of her hands, but just as it was about to hop out Ned quickly caught it and handed it back to her.

“He’s so slippery.” Ned breathed. Shuri shrugged, grabbing the frog right between her hands again.

“For you, milady.” Shuri jokingly handed Michelle the frog. A nervous wave of energy overcame Michelle as she vaguely feared if it might pee on her, but she took it from Shuri’s grasp and held it in her hands regardless.

“Geez. I wonder what species of frog he is.” Peter said, observing the frog as it belched in Michelle’s grasp. Shuri leaned over, staring at the frog as well.

“Looks like a bullfrog to me.” Shuri suggested. “He sure is big like one.”

“Here, everybody should get a chance to hold him.” Michelle hastily handed over the bullfrog to Peter. Caught off guard, Peter nearly let him loose and hop right out of his hands before firmly grasping it. “Watch it, genius!”

“Sorry, sorry! You totally had me off balance.” Peter apologized. Just as Ned had pointed out, the bullfrog was indeed incredibly slippery in Peter’s grasp. He nearly let it hop out of his tight grasp a few times before using the stickiness of his hands to keep the frog still within his hold.

“What do we name him?” Ned whispered.

“....Scrungus Bungus.” Shuri suggested. Michelle looked at her with a dumbfounded expression and snorted, but Shuri kept her smug and confident grin.

“Scrungus Bungus it is, then Scrungus Bungus it shall be! He hath been baptized before the Lord,” Peter spoke in a drawn out, dramatic voice. “Lord Scrungus Bungus the Third.”  

“The Third?” Ned asked. “There’s more of his kin out there?”

“Well, I mean - maybe there is, maybe there isn’t. But it’s like a theoretical title. He might just be the last of his kind.” Peter explained.

“That’s pretty depressing to think about.” Michelle mumbled in a low voice. Shuri tapped her chin with her index finger thoughtfully, allowing Peter’s sentence to sink through.

“We should let Lord Scrungus Bungus the Third go so he can repopulate.” Shuri helpfully suggested. “And it’s getting pretty late. The skies are getting real dark out and my brother should be picking me up anytime now.”

“Yeah,” Peter sighed. “We should. My aunt should be arriving soon too.”

They all looked glumly at Lord Scrungus Bungus the Third as Peter sat him down on the ground and let him loose back into the park’s wilderness, which wasn’t very wild as far as parks go. Still, there was a shared desperateness that felt like they all lost a new friend that day while they watched Lord Scrungus Bungus the Third hop away.

“I’m going to miss him.” Ned said. “Even if it was for three minutes at best. He was a good man.”

“Yeah, but it was for the best.” Michelle replied. Shuri nodded her head sadly.

While they all waited for both May and T’challa to finally arrive, the four of them sat down on the bench together and chatted aimlessly about whatever had been on their minds. Topics would range from the new loss of Scrungus Bungus to the time Peter accidentally fell into the trash can when he was trying to deliver his science project to the teacher in physical science during his freshman year of high school.

Before Peter could even defend himself, the sound of T’challa and Aunt May coming into view and parking their cars respectively had reached the four’s ears.

“May!” Peter shouted, standing up from his bench. Ned followed him, since May had promised that he would be his ride as well.

“Hey, Peter. Did you have fun today?” May asked as she walked over to where he stood. Noticing her brother, Shuri walked over to T’challa with a look of mischief on her face.

“Late again. By several minutes!” She exclaimed. T’challa squinted his eyes in skepticism.

“But I still arrived, didn’t I? You never give me enough credit.” T’challa said. Shuri shook her head in disbelief, but smiled in spite of herself. Michelle watched her as she stood next to Ned, the gears still turning in her head as she tried to figure out just why T’challa’s face felt so familiar.

“We baptized a frog today.” Ned mentioned. “We named him Lord Scrungus Bungus the Third, but then we had to release him back into the wild to repopulate because he’s the last of his kind.”

“Theoretically!” Peter interrupted. “We don’t know for sure, Ned. But we did a good thing doing that, and that’s what matters.”

May smiled, sighing.

“Baptizing a frog, huh? Seems to me like it had been clearly a very exciting day for you.” May said.

“It was!” Peter said, voice full of glee. May looked over at Michelle, snapping her out of her thoughts as May spoke.

“Hey, Michelle, would you like to come with us in the car? It’s awfully breezy outside and I wouldn’t want you getting sick.” May suggested. Michelle blinked, quickly shaking her head.

“I’m fine, thank you May. I can just walk home, I don’t live too far away from here.” Michelle replied. In the growing dark of the afternoon turned evening, Peter sported a frown.

“Come on, MJ! It’d be a lot quicker. And,” Peter added. “We can have more time together. You, Ned, and I. We barely get to do that anymore outside of school.”

Michelle shook her head.

“No, you and Ned get plenty of time together. We don’t. Because you’re too busy doing kickflips over the traffic of Queens like it’s no big deal, prowling about as your alternative ego Sticky Boy.” Michelle said. Ned started laughing.

“ _ Sticky Boy?”  _ Ned asked in amusement, although it sounded more like he was simply repeating Michelle’s word choice than anything else. Peter huffed.

“It’s not Sticky Boy - it’s Spider-Man and you know it.” Peter said. Before Peter could continue, Michelle found herself drawn to Shuri and T’challa’s presence again. His voice came out as far off and distant to Michelle’s ears as she watched the two, Shuri then getting into the car.

Her eyes met with Michelle, face lighting up with surprise before she waved her fingers at her.

“Oh! Bye MJ. I’ll text you tomorrow, I had a lot of fun with you today.” Shuri said. Michelle blushed, nodding haphazardly.

“Y - yeah! You too,” Michelle replied. “I’ll text you tomorrow.”

Shuri smiled, taking her seat into the car and slamming the door shut. T’challa started up the car, driving out of the space where he parked his car and then soon disappearing with Shuri from sight.

Michelle felt lightheaded and giddy. She couldn’t believe Shuri, she couldn’t believe any of what had happened today.

Nor that she could believe she’d be texting Shuri tomorrow, and then seeing her again next Saturday at Peter’s house.

“T’challa’s a nice man, isn’t he?” May said, walking over to the car to go and start up the engine. Michelle squinted her eyes, letting herself absorb in the name before the realization hit her even faster than that metaphorical bullet train at Midtown just a few days ago.

“THE BLACK PANTHER?!” Michelle shouted, whipping her head to look at Peter. “PETER, YOU MADE ME TALK TO THE BLACK PANTHER’S SISTER --”

Peter shot his palms up in front of his face, a MJ-I-know-this-is-completely-crazy-but-please-hear-me-out-before-you-bite-my-face-off-again look written all over his face.

“I know, I know! But I thought you could use a few more friends when I met Shuri a couple of months ago. She reeeaally had the type of personality like you’d get along with her really well and you two did! So it’s not completely insane.” Peter said, attempting to explain himself in front of Michelle. Michelle groaned, pulling at her face.

“You made me talk to  _ Shuri _ . The princess of Wakanda who comes from complete royalty and you never even told me.” Michelle uttered in a low voice.

“I didn’t think it’d be that important to your meeting and you’d just freak out even more if I told you!” Peter said.

“Yeah, but it’d at least be  _ helpful  _ to know! Oh my god, I completely messed up everything today. I looked like a complete fool and I didn’t even realize.” Michelle said.

“Um,” Ned interjected. “This might just be me, but I think when a girl tells you that she really enjoyed talking to you and that she’d text you tomorrow you probably didn’t mess everything up and she must really like you.”

“Yeah, exactly. Or at least on some level.” Peter added. Michelle felt at a loss of words.

“I’m going to be meeting up with the princess of Wakanda. On Saturday. At your house. I’m going to be talking to _Shuri_ again in person.” Michelle said, although speaking to herself more so than anyone else. She began pacing around the bench anxiously. “This is completely insane.”

“Hey, you three! The car’s working now.” May shouted from inside the car. “It can be  _ so  _ frustrating to get it started, especially under this weather.”

Michelle ran her hands through her hair, newly formed anxieties running through her head. Peter gestured for Ned and Michelle to follow him into the car, but Ned had already took up his space in the back seat before Peter had even realized.

“Oh.” Peter said lamely.

Once Peter took his seat in the passenger seat next to May and Michelle buckled up next to Ned, they officially hit the road as May drove off to where Michelle lived so she could drop her off.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ll let you kill me in Minecraft and I won’t complain this time.” Peter said. Michelle shook her head, breathing through her nose and trying her best to calm herself down.

“Oh my god. Shuri -” Michelle waved her hands in the air, gesturing to absolutely nothing and feeling too dumbfounded for proper words. “and you didn’t even tell me anything.”

May laughed lightly.

“Did you meet someone new today, Michelle?” May asked. Michelle was in complete disbelief, unable to process May’s sentence until she repeated it again. “Michelle?”

“Oh! Yeah, sorry. Just…..a bit out of it right now. I met Shuri, she’s really cool.” Michelle said. Ned leaned back in his seat, watching the view of the road from his window.

“Hey, is that my lego?” Ned asked, catching a glimpse of a lego person on the floor. Peter looked over his shoulder as Ned picked it up, blinking.

“Oh! Yeah, it is. I was going to give it to you yesterday since you accidentally left it in the car last time you were here but I guess I sort of lost track of time and forgot.” Peter said. Ned shrugged.

“It’s cool, dude. Don’t worry about it.” Ned replied. “Nice to have it back, though.”

Michelle sighed. She was going to be stuck with these nerds and Shuri next Saturday, and there wasn’t a single thing she could do about it. Well, she could always just  _ not  _ show up - but Shuri was so nice and pretty and smart and cool there’s no way she wouldn’t. And she had been clearly looking forward to seeing Michelle again, too.

Weirdly enough, the thought of Lord Scrungus Bungus the Third had popped up in her head again. She missed him, and it’d be nice to hold him once more to give her reassurance in this absolute wild soon-to-be situation that would play out again on Saturday.

“Shuri totally likes you. I just know she does.” Peter spoke up. “If she didn’t, she’d probably say something about it. That’s just the kind of person she is.”

“Yeah.” Michelle sighed.

“She said that she wants to  _ talk  _ to you again, MJ! Tell me that’s her hating you. Just try and convince me.” Peter said. Ned held the lego in his hands, examining it with deep curiosity as he leaned further in to look at it.

Everyone in the car was thrown aback as they hit a bump in the road, Michelle yelping unexpectedly.

“Sorry! God, it’s so scary driving outside at night. You never know what to expect from it.” May sighed. “Well, here you are Michelle. I hope you have a good rest of the evening and sleep well.”

Michelle looked out her window, and surely enough there had been her house. She felt hesitant to leave, but she definitely didn’t want to overstay her welcome.

“Yeah,” She breathed. “I’ll - I’ll see you all again on Monday. Have a good night.”

“Bye!” Peter waved. Ned looked up from his seat, waving Michelle goodbye as well.

“See you later, MJ!” Ned spoke. Michelle quickly nodded, heading out of the car and shutting the door behind her.

She stood outside her house and met eye contact with May, who smiled at her like a proud mother would. It filled Michelle with a strange warmth as May left her driveway, the car soon disappearing from distance. She sighed, throwing her head and screeching.

“JESUS  _ CHRIST!”  _ Michelle shouted, feeling relieved to let it all out. Lord Scrungus Bungus the Third, meeting Shuri, and then the kind-of-sleepover-but-not-really-because-she-would-only-be-there-as-long-as-Shuri-would that Michelle would have over at Peter’s next Saturday. Far too soon, and yet not quick enough. The thought of Shuri, someone who came from  _ royalty  _ of all things seeing any ounce of worth in Michelle was enough to leave her completely flabbergasted.

And yet, there was a strange hope that maybe, just maybe, these prolonged meetings with Shuri would continue. She was likely sleeping right now or joking around with her brother  _ who just so happened to be the Black Panther but that’s not really important  _ at this time of night. Shuri, gorgeous and smart all at once, who had liked Michelle enough to look forward to Saturday and consistently complimented Michelle telling her she  _ really  _ enjoyed talking to her and wanted to talk to her even more.

It was insane. Absolutely crazy, and yet it happened. Michelle tried her best not to falsely reimagine Shuri’s feelings for her as something bigger than it was, but she couldn’t help it. It wasn’t often that girls had been so nice to her, especially not somebody as big and important as Shuri.

Michelle’s irrational thoughts and feelings were like Lord Scrungus Bungus the Third belching wildly and trying to leap out of her grasp, and her hands were the logical side of the brain that graduated kindergarten and knew better than that  _ not  _ to.

But.  _ But.  _ But! If Shuri liked her, if Shuri  _ liked  _ her then that meant she hadn’t completely screwed everything up. And that was more than enough for Michelle. She breathed shakily into the evening night, watching the streets of Queens slowly but steadily beginning to finally quiet down.

Michelle left, walking into her house and squealing as she flapped her hands excitedly.

She couldn’t believe it.  _ She couldn’t believe it! _

Shuri. Shuri of all people enjoying talking to her! Wanting to talk to Michelle even more, too! The whole situation was crazy, completely insane, out of this world -

And yet, it was just as it should be.

Michelle would see Shuri again on Saturday, and then maybe if she didn’t screw that up either she would see her again and again and again and again and  _ again.  _ It was hard not to get ahead of herself, it was harder than anything Michelle had ever imagined. Shuri was someone to wake up to and look forward to in the morning, somebody that left her heart aflutter with a craving to get to know her and talk to her even more.

The idea of any of that was too far out for her to imagine, and yet it was happening.  _ All  _ of this was happening. As Michelle quietly shut the door behind her and still flapping her unoccupied hand, she took notice of the deadly silent and dark hallway.

Yeah, she really needed to get to bed.

Michelle sighed breathlessly, the thought of seeing Shuri again leaving her lightheaded and giddy once more.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  



End file.
